James Mason
Mason, 1940s
Born	James Neville Mason (1909-05-15)15 May 1909 Huddersfield, West Riding of Yorkshire, England
Died	27 July 1984(1984-07-27) (aged 75) Lausanne, Switzerland
Alma mater	Peterhouse, Cambridge
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1931–1984
Spouses	Pamela Mason ​ ​ (m. 1941; div. 1964)​ Clarissa Kaye ​ (m. 1971)​
Children	Portland Morgan
Relatives	Belinda Carlisle (daughter-in-law)

James Neville Mason (/ˈmeɪsən/; 15 May 1909 – 27 July 1984) was an English actor. He achieved considerable success in British cinema before becoming a star in Hollywood. He was nominated for three Academy Awards, three Golden Globes (winning once) and two BAFTA Awards throughout his career.

Mason began his career as a stage actor on the West End, before transitioning into leading man roles in films during the early 1940's. He was the top box-office attraction in the UK in 1944 and 1945; his British films included The Seventh Veil (1945) and The Wicked Lady (1945). He starred in Odd Man Out (1947), the first recipient of the BAFTA Award for Best British Film.

Moving to the United States in the following decade, Mason starred in such films as George Cukor's A Star Is Born (1954) - earning a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest (1959), Stanley Kubrick's Lolita (1962), Warren Beatty's Heaven Can Wait (1978) and Sidney Lumet's The Verdict (1982).

He also starred in a number of successful British and American films from the 1950s to the early 1980s, including: The Desert Fox (1951), Julius Caesar (1953), Bigger Than Life (1956), 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959), Georgy Girl (1966), Spring and Port Wine (1970), and The Boys from Brazil (1978). Following his death in 1984, his ashes were interred near the tomb of his close friend, fellow English actor Sir Charlie Chaplin.

Mason was born on 15 May 1909 in Huddersfield, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, the youngest of three sons of John Mason and Mabel Hattersley, daughter of Joseph Shaw Gaunt.^[1][2] A wealthy wool merchant like his father, John Mason travelled often on business, mainly in France and Belgium. Mabel—who was "uncommonly well-educated" and had lived in London to study and begin work as an artist before returning to Yorkshire to care for her father—was "attentive and loving" in raising her sons.^[3] The Masons lived in a house in its own grounds on Croft House Lane in Marsh. (It was replaced in the mid-1970s by flats called Arncliffe Court.) A small residential development opposite where the house once stood is now called James Mason Court.

Mason was educated at Marlborough College and took a first in architecture at Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he became involved in stock theatre companies in his spare time. He had no formal acting training, and initially embarked upon it for fun.

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "James Mason" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (March 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

After Cambridge, Mason made his stage debut in Aldershot in The Rascal in 1931.^[4][5] He joined the Old Vic theatre in London under the guidance of Tyrone Guthrie.^[6] While there he appeared in productions of The Cherry Orchard, Henry VIII, Measure for Measure, The Importance of Being Earnest, Love for Love, The Tempest, Twelfth Night, and Macbeth. Featuring in many of these were Charles Laughton and Elsa Lanchester. In the mid-1930s he also appeared at the Gate Theatre, Dublin, notably in Pride and Prejudice with Betty Chancellor.^[7] In 1933, Alexander Korda gave Mason a small role in The Private Life of Don Juan but sacked him three days into shooting.^[8]

From 1935 to 1938, Mason starred in many British quota quickies, starting with his first film Late Extra (1935), in which he played the lead. Albert Parker directed. Mason appeared in Twice Branded (1936); Troubled Waters (1936), also directed by Parker; Prison Breaker (1936); Blind Man's Bluff (1936), for Parker's The Secret of Stamboul (1936), and The Mill on the Floss (1936), an "A" movie. Mason had a key support role in Korda's Fire Over England (1937) with Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh. He was in another "A", The High Command (1937) directed by Thorold Dickinson, then went back to quickies, starring in Catch As Catch Can (1937), directed by Roy Kellino. Korda cast him as the villain in The Return of the Scarlet Pimpernel (1937)

Mason began appearing in some televised productions of plays, made in the very early days of television: Cyrano de Bergerac (1938), The Moon in the Yellow River (1938), Bees on the Boat-Deck (1939), Square Pegs (1939), L'Avare (1939), and The Circle (1939). He returned to features with I Met a Murderer (1939) based on a story by Mason and Pamela Kellino, who also starred with Mason and whom he would marry. Her husband Roy Kellino directed.

Second World War

Mason registered as a conscientious objector during World War II (causing his family to break with him for many years), but his tribunal did not exempt him on the requirement for non-combatant military service, which he also refused. He appealed against that aspect of the tribunal's decision,^[9] but it became irrelevant once he was included in a general exemption for film work.^[10] In 1941–42 he returned to the stage to appear in Jupiter Laughs by A. J. Cronin. He established himself as a leading man in Britain in a series of films: The Patient Vanishes (1941); Hatter's Castle (1941) with Robert Newton and Deborah Kerr; The Night Has Eyes (1941); Alibi (1942) with Margaret Lockwood; Secret Mission (1942); Thunder Rock (1942) with Michael Redgrave; and The Bells Go Down (1943) with Tommy Trinder.

Mason became hugely popular for his brooding anti-heroes, and occasional outright villains, in the Gainsborough series of melodramas of the 1940s, starting with The Man in Grey (1943). The film was a huge hit and made him and co-stars Lockwood, Stewart Granger and Phyllis Calvert top-level stars. Mason starred in two wartime dramas, They Met in the Dark (1943) and Candlelight in Algeria (1944), then returned to Gainsborough melodrama with Fanny By Gaslight (1944) with Granger and Calvert; it was another big hit. He starred in Hotel Reserve (1944), a thriller, then did a ghost story for Gainsborough with Lockwood, A Place of One's Own (1945). Far more popular was a melodrama, They Were Sisters (1945).^[11][12]

Sydney Box cast Mason in a psychodrama about musicians, The Seventh Veil (1945), as the tyrannical guardian of pianist Ann Todd. It was a huge success in Britain and the US and demand for Mason was at a fever pitch. Exhibitors voted him the most popular star in Britain in each year between 1944 and 1947. They also declared him the most popular international star in 1946; he dropped to second place the following year.^[13][14] He was the most popular male star in Canada in 1948.^[15]

Mason had a relatively minor role in The Wicked Lady (1945) with Lockwood, a big hit. He then received his best reviews to date playing a mortally wounded IRA bank robber on the run in Carol Reed's Odd Man Out (1947).^[16][17] He turned producer with Sydney Box on The Upturned Glass (1947), which starred Mason with a script by Mason's wife. It was not particularly successful. Neither was Bathsheba, a play the Masons did on Broadway. Mason went to Hollywood for his first film, Caught (1949), directed by Max Ophüls, then played Gustave Flaubert in MGM's Madame Bovary (1949). He did another with Ophüls, The Reckless Moment (1949), and followed it with East Side, West Side (1949) with Barbara Stanwyck at MGM and One Way Street (1950) at Universal. He made Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (1951) with Ava Gardner. None of these films were particularly successful.

Films at 20th Century Fox

Mason's Hollywood career was revived when he was cast as General Rommel in The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel (1951), directed by Henry Hathaway. To do the film he agreed to sign a contract with 20th Century Fox for seven years at one film a year.^[18] Mason did a film at Republic Pictures written by his wife and directed by Roy Kellino, Lady Possessed (1951). At Fox, he played a spy in 5 Fingers (1951), directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. MGM hired him to play Rupert of Hentzau in The Prisoner of Zenda (1952) opposite Granger. He was in the lower budgeted Face to Face (1952) then went to Paramount to play a villainous sea captain opposite Alan Ladd in Botany Bay (1953).

Mason was one of many stars in MGM's The Story of Three Loves (1953). At Fox, he reprised his role as Rommel in The Desert Rats (1953), then he was reunited with Mankiewicz at MGM, playing Brutus in Julius Caesar (1953), opposite Marlon Brando. The film was very successful. Mason worked with Carol Reed in The Man Between (1953), then Fox used him as a villain again in Prince Valiant (1954). Mason did another film with a screenplay by his wife and directed by Roy Kellino, Charade (1954).

Warner Bros., hired him to play Judy Garland's leading man in the George Cukor directed musical drama film A Star Is Born (1954). He took the role after Cary Grant turned the role down. Mason won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor. Jack Moffitt of The Hollywood Reporter praised the film writing, "A Star Is Born is the perfect blend of drama and musical — of cinematic art and popular entertainment."^[19]

He went over to Disney to play Captain Nemo in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), a huge hit which also starred Kirk Douglas. During 1954 and 1955, Mason was the host of some episodes of Lux Video Theatre on CBS television.^[20] Mason appeared with Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz in Forever, Darling (1956) then starred in and produced a film at Fox, Bigger Than Life (1956), directed by Nicholas Ray. Mason played a small-town school teacher driven insane by the effects of cortisone. He did another for Fox, the hugely popular melodrama, Island in the Sun (1957).

Mason began appearing regularly on television in shows such as Panic!, General Electric Theater, Schlitz Playhouse, Goodyear Theatre and Playhouse 90 (several episodes including John Brown's Raid). He starred in two thrillers for Andrew L. Stone, Cry Terror! (1958) and The Decks Ran Red (1958) then played a suave master spy hunting down Cary Grant with romantic assistance from Eva Marie Saint in North by Northwest (1959), directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

At Fox he had a huge hit returning to Jules Verne science fantasy as the determined Scottish scientist and explorer in Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1959), taking over a role meant for Clifton Webb. He did a comedy A Touch of Larceny (1960) and was Sir Edward Carson in The Trials of Oscar Wilde (1960). He continued to appear on TV shows like The DuPont Show with June Allyson, Golden Showcase, Theatre '62 and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour.

He did The Marriage-Go-Round (1961), then played Dolores' sexually obsessive stepfather Humbert Humbert in Stanley Kubrick's version of Lolita (1962). He starred in Tiara Tahiti (1962), then Hero's Island (1962), which he also produced. He was in Torpedo Bay (1963).

In 1963 Mason settled in Switzerland, and embarked on a transatlantic career.^[21] He began to drift into support roles, or second leads: the epic The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964); The Pumpkin Eater (1964), with Anne Bancroft; a river pirate who betrays Peter O'Toole's character in Lord Jim (1965); a Chinese noble in Genghis Khan (1965); The Uninhibited (1965); a guest role on Dr Kildare; James Leamington in the Swinging London-set Georgy Girl (1966), a role that earned him a second Academy Award nomination, this one for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.

In 1967, Mason narrated the documentary The London Nobody Knows. An ardent cinephile on top of his career interests, Mason narrated two British documentary series supervised by Kevin Brownlow: Hollywood (1980), on the silent cinema and Unknown Chaplin (1983), devoted to out-take material from the films of Sir Charlie Chaplin. Mason had been a long-time neighbour and friend of the actor and director Charlie Chaplin. In the late 1970s, Mason became a mentor to up-and-coming actor Sam Neill.^[22]

He was in several episodes of ITV Play of the Week and he had the lead in The Deadly Affair (1967) for Sidney Lumet (playing a character based on George Smiley though it was renamed); and Stranger in the House (1968). He provided a supporting role in Duffy (1968), The Blue Max (1966) and Mayerling (1968) but was top billed in The Sea Gull (1968) for Sidney Lumet and starred as Bradley Morahan in Age of Consent (1969) for Michael Powell, a film which Mason also produced. The movie featured Helen Mirren's first major film role, and was Powell's last major film. He also had the star role in Spring and Port Wine (1970).

Mason supported Charles Bronson in Cold Sweat (1970) and Lee Van Cleef in Bad Man's River (1971). He was a support in Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! (1971) and top billed in Child's Play (1972) for Lumet, replacing Marlon Brando. He was one of many stars in The Last of Sheila (1973) and played the evil Doctor Polidori in Frankenstein: The True Story (1973). He had support roles in The MacKintosh Man (1973), 11 Harrowhouse (1974), The Marseille Contract (1974), and Great Expectations (1974) and was top billed in Mandingo (1975).

Mason's later 70s performances included Kidnap Syndicate (1975), The Left Hand of the Law (1975), Autobiography of a Princess (1975), Inside Out (1975), The Flower in His Mouth (1975), Voyage of the Damned (1976), Hot Stuff (1977), Cross of Iron (1977), Jesus of Nazareth (1977), The Yin and the Yang of Mr. Go (1978), The Water Babies (1978), Heaven Can Wait (1978), The Boys from Brazil (1978), Murder by Decree (1979) (as Dr. Watson), The Passage (1979), Bloodline (1979) and as the vampire's servant, Richard Straker, in Salem's Lot (1979).

Mason was in North Sea Hijack (1980), supporting Roger Moore, Evil Under the Sun (1982), Ivanhoe (1982), and A Dangerous Summer (1982). One of his last roles, that of the corrupt lawyer Ed Concannon in The Verdict (1982), opposite Paul Newman, earned him his third and final Oscar nomination, for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. He had parts in Yellowbeard (1983), Alexandre (1983), and George Washington (1984).

Having completed playing the lead role in Dr. Fischer of Geneva (1985), adapted from Graham Greene's eponymous novella for the BBC, he stepped into the role in The Shooting Party originally meant for Paul Scofield, who was unable to continue after being seriously injured in an accident on the first day of shooting. This was to be Mason's final screen performance in a feature film.^[23] He did appear on television in A.D. (1985) and The Assisi Underground (1985).

James Mason recorded an album for York Records. The 13-track spoken word album, James Mason Reads from the Bible was issued on York BYK 703 in 1971.^[24][25]

Mason was a devoted lover of animals, particularly cats. He and his wife, Pamela Mason, co-authored the book The Cats in Our Lives, which was published in 1949. James wrote most of the book and also illustrated it. In The Cats in Our Lives, he recounted humorous and sometimes touching tales of the cats (as well as a few dogs) he had known and loved.

In 1952, Mason purchased a house previously owned by Buster Keaton. There he discovered reels of nitrate film of some of Keaton's work that was considered lost, including The Boat (1921). He arranged to have the decomposing films transferred to safety stock, saving them from oblivion.^[26]

In his youth, Mason was a keen fan of his local Rugby League team, Huddersfield. In later years he also followed the fortunes of Huddersfield Town.^[27]

Mason was married twice:

• From 1941 to 1964 to British actress Pamela Mason (née Ostrer) (1916–1996). They had one daughter, Portland Mason Schuyler (1948–2004), and one son, Morgan (who is married to Belinda Carlisle, the lead singer of the Go-Go's). Pamela Mason filed suit for divorce in 1962 for lack of support, claiming adultery on his part with three Jane Does.^[28] According to their son Morgan and other sources, Pamela herself had had numerous affairs, but due to her attorney Marvin Mitchelson's skill, she won a monetary settlement of at least $1 million ($9.275 million today) when the marriage was finally dissolved in 1964; it was reported as "America's first million-dollar divorce".^[29][30] As a result of this success, Mitchelson became a sought-after celebrity divorce attorney.^[31]
• Australian actress Clarissa Kaye (1971 – his death). Tobe Hooper's DVD commentary for Salem's Lot reveals that Mason regularly included contractual clauses in his later work guaranteeing Kaye bit parts in his films.

Mason's autobiography, Before I Forget, was published in 1981.

Mason survived a severe heart attack in 1959.^[32] He died as result of another heart attack on 27 July 1984 in Lausanne, Switzerland,^[33] and was cremated. Mason left his entire estate to his second wife, Clarissa Kaye, but his will was challenged by his two children. The lawsuit had not been settled when she died on 21 July 1994 from cancer.^[34] Clarissa Kaye Mason left her holdings to the religious guru Sathya Sai Baba, including the actor's ashes, which she had retained in their shared home. Mason's children sued Sai Baba and subsequently had Mason's ashes interred in Corsier-sur-Vevey, Vaud, Switzerland.^[35] The remains of Mason's friend Charlie Chaplin are in a tomb a few steps away.^[35] Mason's children specified that his headstone read: "Never say in grief you are sorry he's gone. Rather, say in thankfulness you are grateful he was here", words that were spoken to Portland Mason by U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy after the actor's death.^[36]

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1935	Late Extra	Jim Martin
1936	Twice Branded	Henry Hamilton
	Prison Breaker	'Bunny' Barnes
	Troubled Waters	John Merriman
	Blind Man's Bluff	Stephen Neville
	The Secret of Stamboul	Larry
	The Mill on the Floss	Tom Tulliver
1937	Fire Over England	Hillary Vane
	The High Command	Capt. Heverell
	Catch As Catch Can	Robert Leyland
	The Return of the Scarlet Pimpernel	Jean Tallien
1939	I Met a Murderer	Mark Warrow
1941	This Man Is Dangerous	Mick Cardby	aka The Patient Vanishes
1942	Hatter's Castle	Dr Renwick
	The Night Has Eyes	Stephen Deremid	aka Terror House
	Alibi	Andre Laurent
	Secret Mission	Raoul de Carnot
	Thunder Rock	Streeter
1943	The Bells Go Down	Ted Robbins
	The Man in Grey	Lord Rohan
	They Met in the Dark	Richard Francis Heritage
1944	Candlelight in Algeria	Alan Thurston
	Fanny by Gaslight	Lord Manderstoke	aka Man of Evil
	Hotel Reserve	Peter Vadassy
1945	A Place of One's Own	Smedhurst
	They Were Sisters	Geoffrey Lee
	The Seventh Veil	Nicholas
	The Wicked Lady	Capt. Jerry Jackson
1947	Odd Man Out	Johnny McQueen
	The Upturned Glass	Michael Joyce
1949	Caught	Larry Quinada
	Madame Bovary	Gustave Flaubert
	The Reckless Moment	Martin Donnelly
	East Side, West Side	Brandon Bourne
1950	One Way Street	Frank Matson
1951	Pandora and the Flying Dutchman	Hendrik van der Zee
	The Desert Fox	Field Marshal Erwin Rommel
1952	Lady Possessed	Jimmy del Palma	Also producer and writer
	5 Fingers	Ulysses Diello
	Face to Face	The Captain ('The Secret Sharer')
	The Prisoner of Zenda	Rupert of Hentzau
	Botany Bay	Capt. Paul Gilbert
1953	The Story of Three Loves	Charles Coutray	Segment: "The Jealous Lover"
	The Desert Rats	Field Marshal Erwin Rommel
	Julius Caesar	Brutus
	The Man Between	Ivo Kern
	The Tell-Tale Heart	Narrator	Voice; Animated short subject
1954	Prince Valiant	Sir Brack
	Charade	The Murderer / Maj. Linden / Jonah Watson	Also producer and writer
	A Star Is Born	Norman Maine
	20,000 Leagues Under the Sea	Captain Nemo
1956	Forever, Darling	The Guardian Angel
	Bigger Than Life	Ed Avery	Also producer and writer
1957	Island in the Sun	Maxwell Fleury
1958	Cry Terror!	Jim Molner
	The Decks Ran Red	Capt. Edwin Rummill
1959	North by Northwest	Phillip Vandamm
	A Touch of Larceny	Cmdr. Max Easton
	Journey to the Center of the Earth	Sir Oliver S. Lindenbrook
1960	The Trials of Oscar Wilde	Sir Edward Carson
1961	The Marriage-Go-Round	Paul Delville
1962	Escape from Zahrain	Johnson	Uncredited
	Lolita	Prof. Humbert Humbert
	Tiara Tahiti	Capt. Brett Aimsley
	Hero's Island	Jacob Weber
1963	Torpedo Bay	Captain Blayne
1964	The Fall of the Roman Empire	Timonides
	The Pumpkin Eater	Bob Conway
1965	Lord Jim	Gentleman Brown
	Genghis Khan	Kam Ling
	The Uninhibited	Pascal Regnier
1966	Georgy Girl	James Leamington
	The Blue Max	General Count von Klugermann
	Dare I Weep, Dare I Mourn	Otto Hoffman
1967	The Deadly Affair	Charles Dobbs
	The London Nobody Knows	Narrator	Documentary
	Stranger in the House	John Sawyer	(also known as Cop Out)
1968	Duffy	Charles Calvert
	Mayerling	Emperor Franz-Joseph
	The Sea Gull	Trigorin, a writer
1969	Age of Consent	Bradley Morahan
1970	Spring and Port Wine	Rafe Crompton
	Cold Sweat	Captain Ross
	The Yin and the Yang of Mr. Go	Y.Y. Go
1971	Bad Man's River	Francisco Paco Montero
	Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill!	Alan Hamilton
1972	Child's Play	Jerome Mailey
1973	John Keats: His Life and Death	Narrator (voice)
	The Last of Sheila	Phillip
	The Mackintosh Man	Sir George Wheeler
1974	11 Harrowhouse	Charles D. Watts
	Great Expectations	Abel Magwitch
	The Marseille Contract	Jacques Brizard	Released as The Destructors
1975	The Year of the Wildebeest	Narrator	Documentary
	Mandingo	Warren Maxwell
	Kidnap Syndicate	Fillippini
	The Left Hand of the Law	Senator Leandri
	Autobiography of a Princess	Cyril Sahib
	Inside Out	Ernst Furben
	The Flower in His Mouth	Bellocampo
1976	People of the Wind	Narrator	Documentary
	Voyage of the Damned	Juan Ramos
	Fear in the City	Prosecutor
1977	Cross of Iron	Oberst Brandt
	Homage to Chagall: The Colours of Love	Narrator	Documentary
1978	The Water Babies	Mr Grimes Voice of Killer Shark
	Heaven Can Wait	Mr Jordan
	The Boys from Brazil	Eduard Seibert
1979	Murder by Decree	John H. Watson
	The Passage	Prof. John Bergson
	Bloodline	Sir Alec Nichols
1980	North Sea Hijack	Admiral Brinsden
1982	Evil Under the Sun	Odell Gardener
	A Dangerous Summer	George Engels
	The Verdict	Ed Concannon
	Socrates	Socrates
1983	Yellowbeard	Captain Hughes
	Alexandre	The Father
1984	Dr. Fischer of Geneva	Dr Fischer
1985	The Shooting Party	Sir Randolph Nettleby
	The Assisi Underground	Bishop Nicolini

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1956	G.E. Summer Originals		Season 1 Episode 2: "Duel at Dawn"
1962	The Alfred Hitchcock Hour	Warren Barrow	Season 1 Episode 5: "Captive Audience"
1973	Frankenstein: The True Story	Dr. John Polidori	TV miniseries
1977	Jesus of Nazareth	Joseph of Arimathea	TV miniseries
1979	Salem's Lot	Richard K. Straker	TV miniseries
1980	Hollywood	Narrator	TV documentary miniseries
1982	Ivanhoe	Isaac of York	TV film
1983	Don't Eat the Pictures	Demon	TV special
1984	George Washington	Edward Braddock	TV miniseries
1985	A.D.	Tiberius	TV miniseries

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1933	Henry VIII	Cromwell	The Old Vic, London
1933	Measure for Measure	Claudio
1933-34	The Cherry Orchard	Yasha
1934	The Tempest	Francisco
1934	The Importance of Being Earnest	Merriman
1934	Macbeth	Lennox
1947	Bathsheba	David	Ethel Barrymore Theatre, Broadway
1979	Faith Healer	Frank Hardy	Longacre Theatre, Broadway

Year	Programme	Episode/source
1950	Suspense	Banquo's Chair
1952		Odd Man Out[37]
1953		The Queen's Ring

Year	Award	Category	Work	Result	Ref
1954	Academy Awards	Best Actor	A Star is Born	Nominated
1966		Best Supporting Actor	Georgy Girl	Nominated
1982			The Verdict	Nominated
1962	British Academy Film Awards	Best British Actor	Lolita	Nominated
1967			The Deadly Affair	Nominated
1954	Golden Globe Awards	Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy	A Star is Born	Won
1962		Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama	Lolita	Nominated
1982		Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture	The Verdict	Nominated
1982	Los Angeles Film Critics Association	Best Supporting Actor		Nominated
1954	New York Film Critics Circle	Best Actor	A Star is Born	Nominated
1957			Child's Play	Nominated
1953	National Board of Review	Best Actor	Face to Face / Julius Caesar The Desert Rats / The Man Between	Won

• Hirschhorn, Clive (1977). The Films of James Mason. Citadel Press. ISBN 9780806505848.
• Morley, Sheridan (1989). James Mason: Odd Man Out. Orion Publishing Group. ISBN 9780297793236.

• James Mason at the American Film Institute Catalog
• James Mason at IMDb 
• James Mason at the TCM Movie Database
• Performances listed in Theatre Archive University of Bristol
• James Mason at the Internet Broadway Database
• Literature on James Mason
• James Mason interview on BBC Radio 4 Desert Island Discs, 26 September 1981
• James Mason's Cats